Animal-welfare officials are begging New Yorkers not to buy puppies and kittens from pet stores this Christmas, when they can save a life and adopt a grateful new friend from city shelters instead.

Officials are desperate to empty shelter cages, to prepare for unwanted cat-and-dog stocking stuffers who will be dropped off at the shelter if they don’t work out as pets. And the shelter people are sweetening the deal by drastically reducing adoption fees.

Take home a young pup like Michael the beagle for just $50, down from the usual $150 price tag for a shelter purebred – and a fraction of pet-store prices. Loveable three-month old mutt Sammy is also going cheap, and kittens of every color and stripe are just $25 each, or two for $45.

The Manhattan shelter in East Harlem had about double the normal traffic last week as people browsed for a potential addition to the family, or just a pest-control system.

“The rodents in my apartment have been acting up, so I think a cat would scare them away,” said Amos Brown, who got a tiger-white kitty.